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SA abalone ruling may have national effect

A High Court decision upholding the native title rights of two Aboriginal people to take undersized abalone may have national ramifications.

South Australian Attorney General John Rau says the government is getting legal advice on the implications of Wednesday's ruling that the rights of Owen and Daniel Karpany were not extinguished by the South Australian Fisheries Management Act.

Mr Rau told ABC Radio the government wants to find out whether the decision is confined to this particular case or has wider ramifications.

Fisheries officers busted the father and son in 2009 near Cape Elizabeth in possession of 32 abalone - 24 of them under the 13-centimetre size limit.

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The pair, members of the Narrunga people, said they planned to divide up the catch and eat them at a banquet with about 15 family members.

The case went to the full bench of the SA Supreme Court, which held that their native title rights had been extinguished and the Native Title Act did not apply in any event.

But the High Court held that SA fisheries law did not bar native title holders gathering undersized abalone for personal, non-commercial communal needs.

"Maybe the implications are quite modest and it just means these gentlemen can occasionally go out for private purposes and get some abalone," Mr Rau said on Thursday.

Asked if it sent the wrong message about keeping undersized catches, Mr Rau said it was not a good thing according to fisheries laws.

But if the decision meant only one or two individuals, who were native title holders, could occasionally do this, it would have a limited impact.